Most of the big seats are now filled, but this year's silly season still has plenty of mileage left in it, mostly thanks to a combination of moneyed rookies and desperate older drivers clutching at the remaining plethora of seats at the new teams, re-branded teams and the rest.
The current faffing over Renault's future, with the team looking more and more certain to be sold to someone else for 2010, means that Robert Kubica is likely to find himself a free agent for 2010, and able to slide into a role at Mercedes GP, to give the reigning champions (of a sort) at least one driver who sort-of knows what it is like to win a race. If Mercedes can't be bothered to wait for Kubica to become available, Nick Heidfeld remains available. So yeah, they'll probably wait.
As for whatever Renault become, should the Genii Capital bid be accepted by the French manufacturer, then Chinese A1GP driver Ho-Pin Tung has been linked to one seat. The largely useless ex-GP2 driver tested for Renault in Jerez, and is one of the higher-profile names on the books of Genii boss Gerard Lopez's driver management company. Renault also tested Lucas di Grassi at Jerez, but he is likely to seal a deal with the Virgin/Manor team. Unless A1GP champion Adam Carroll manages to sneak in there ahead of him.
If Prodrive take over the team, then Anthony Davidson's name has been throuwn into the ring as a potential driver. In slightly more baffling news, the Prodrive bid has also been linked with Renault, although the 1997 champion is believed to actually be closer to another old F1 name that used to be successful and will likely just embarrass themselves next year in the Malaysian Lotus team.
Lotus are set to decide between Villeneuve, Jarno Trulli, Takuma Sato and Kamui Kobayashi for their two drives, though Christian Klien is reported by some to be in with a shot, which would be mental. Klien's name has also been linked with the newly re-re-named Sauber team, along with Heidfeld and Kobayashi. The Guardian this week reported that the most likely line-up for Peter Sauber's team was GP2 guffball Vitaly Petrov and ancient McLaren tester Pedro de la Rosa, which would be a ludicrous mess of a line-up if true.
Meanwhile, Toro Rosso have clarified that Jamie Alguersuari isn't quite as confirmed for 2010 as the driver himself announced that he was earlier last month, confirming that only Sebastien Buemi has a definite deal for 2010 with the team. Algie is still the most likely candidate for the second seat, mind you, though a hugely impressive Jerez test by Red Bull man Daniel Ricciardo might just have played himself into contention.
The other two new teams have been rather quiet over the last few weeks, with Team USF1 surprisingly going a good week or so without blithely announcing that they're still here. José María López is still set for one seat with the team, assuming that he coughs up the required sponsorship cash, while nobody really knows or indeed cares who they'll go for in the second seat. Pedro Chaves?
Meanwhile, Campos are still looking for someone to partner Bruno Senna in their debut season. Although both Petrov and fellow GP2 dullard Pastor Maldonado (not a real Pastor) were thought to be in pole position for the vacant seat, a third largely useless GP2 driver, Alvaro Parente, has recently been singled-out as being the most likely man to take the drive, which is all deliciously futile.
There are still other drivers out there, the likes of Formula 2 champion Andy Soucek, DTM 'ace' Paul di Resta and the excellently-named Bertrand Baguette all impressing in the recent young driver test. But alas, none of those drivers have limited talent and massive wallets, so their hopes of a race seat remain slim.
Confirmed drivers so far:
Mercedes GP - Rosberg / TBA
Red Bull - Webber / Vettel
McLaren - Hamilton / Button
Ferrari - Alonso / Massa
Williams - Barrichello / Hulkenburg
Renault - Kubica / TBA
Force India - Sutil / Liuzzi
Toro Rosso - Buemi / TBA
Sauber - TBA / TBA
Campos - Senna / TBA
Manor - Glock / TBA
USF1 - TBA / TBA
Lotus - TBA / TBA
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